PEOPLE outdoors are exposed to higher levels of harmful ultraviolet rays than previously thought, according to a three-year study.
The present estimate of UV exposure, the UV index, is based on measuring how much radiation hits a horizontal surface. But this often underestimates how much UV hits a vertical surface when the sun is low in the sky, says Peter Hoeppe, a biometeorologist at Geo Risk Research in Munich, Germany.
His team has developed a new way of estimating UV exposure that it hopes is more accurate. The researchers measured the UV radiation hitting 27 surfaces inclined at different angles…
